“I woke up and heard the lambs screaming. I woke up in the dark and the lambs were screaming.”
“They were slaughtering the spring lambs?”
“Yes”
“What did you do?”
“I couldn’t do anything for them. I was just a –“
“What did you do with the horse?”
“I got dressed without turning on the light and went outside. She was scared. All the horses in the pen were scared and milling around. I blew in her nose and she knew it was me. Finally she put her nose in my hand. The lights were on in the barn and in the shed by the sheep pen. Bare bulbs, big shadows. The refrigerator truck had come and it was idling, roaring. I led her away.”
“Did you saddle her?”
“No. I didn’t take their saddle. Just a rope hackamore was all.”
“As you went off in the dark, could you hear the lambs back where the lights were?”
“Not long. There weren’t but twelve.”
“You still wake up sometimes, don’t you? Wake up in the iron dark with the lambs screaming?”
“Good-bye, Clarice. Will you let me know if ever the lambs stop screaming?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll tell you.”
From “Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris. Sorry about the photo, it was the best I could do, in Finland the lambs are still hibernating this time of year.
This post is a part of the 30 Days of Photographs II challenge. Please visit the rest of the participants for more fantastic photos: MikeWJ, Nicky and Mike, Mo, Meleah, John, aka nonamedufus, Bryan, aka Unfinished Person, Mariann, Malisa, Nora, LaughingMom, Tanya, Elizabeth A., 00dozo, Cheryl, Kristen, Pam and Katherine. *
